What’s next for Colorado’s Aerospace and Defense Industry?

State policy, while something we talk about often here at Colorado Chamber Office Hours, can be an abstract term at times.

And it's something that I always attempt to explain in real-world situations.

Today, we are going to be talking about Colorado's aerospace industry, which for decades has been one of the shining lights of our statewide economy, producing constant growth in jobs, paying salaries and benefits now north of $179,000 on the average, and giving Colorado one of the highest concentrations of aerospace employment in America.

A new report shows that while this remains a $14.2 billion industry that produces two jobs in other sectors for every job that a Lockheed Martin or United Launch Alliance creates, state policy is putting us in danger of being less competitive for this growth at a time when a lot of other states are ramping up efforts to capture aerospace employer expansions for themselves.

Sitting down with us is Kat Saunders, the head of strategy and leadership for Economic Leadership, the North Carolina-based strategic planning firm that just produced the 96-page competitive assessment of Colorado's aerospace sector and offered 18 recommendations on how to improve our atmosphere.

The assessment, I should mention, was commissioned by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce.